North Penn TV adopts closed captioning system

TOWAMENCIN — Those who are hard of hearing will now be able to enjoy North Penn Television programming, thanks to a new closed captioning system the district recently adopted.

Although community members have requested closed captioning (CC) for several years, the cost of previous technologies had always been out of reach for the district, said Bob Gillmer, North Penn School District coordinator of communications media. “In the past, you literally had to have someone transcribing the audio in real time,” he said. The ENCO system adopted by the district uses a computer to do the same thing, which brings down the cost by about 95 percent.

The system listens to the broadcast, transcribes the audio and imposes it on the TV screen, Gillmer explained. “When you’re watching, it’s a software program that’s listening to the audio, so sometimes it might not get all the words exactly right,” he said. “The system does learn our local language — not everyone knows what ‘Gwynedd Square’ is — it learns those names and becomes more accurate over time.” The system is designed primarily for speech, so it wouldn’t necessarily work for a concert, he said. Users can also expect a five-to-seven-second delay.

Frank O’Donnell, a director on the NPSD school board, filed the formal request for the CC system. He’s hard of hearing himself and thought NPTV would greatly benefit from closed captioning, even though the district is not required to provide it.

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O’Donnell wears hearing aids, but they don’t restore his hearing 100 percent. “Some people think hearing aids get you back up to normal hearing,” he said. “It doesn’t. It’s an aid. That’s where closed captions come in.” He’s already tried watching NPTV with the CC system in place and said he really appreciates being able to better understand what’s going on.

The district was able to get a discounted rate for the system and paid a one-time equipment fee of approximately $11,800, O’Donnell said. There’s also an annual subscription fee of about $11,000.

North Penn had previously installed assistive listening devices in the middle school and high school auditoriums, as well as in the Educational Services Center conference room used for school board meetings. The devices pick up and amplify sound, O’Donnell explained. Community members attending board meetings are invited to use the devices, which are available in the back of the room.

There has also been discussion about the possibility of installing a looping system, a wire that circles a room and transmits the sound electromagnetically, he said. Hearing aids produced in the last two or three years have built-in looping systems; all the user needs to do is press a button and the looping system will transmit the sound. The district originally talked about wiring a few different rooms with the system, O’Donnell said, but it’s now focusing only on the ESC conference room, as it costs approximately $5,000 per room.

All cable subscribers have access to NPTV, Comcast channel 28 and Verizon channel 29. The closed captioning system can be activated by pressing the “CC” button on your television remote.